Monthly Archives: June 2014

“Would You Mind Walking this Way?” is the latest video produced by Art and Zen Today and the One Mind Artist Coalition. It speaks to the notion of being on what is variously referred to as an “inner journey”, a “trip” or a “Path”. What I tried to convey in this video is that the Path entails being in the moment while on the journey, no matter where it takes us. The idea is to let go of concerns of where we are going or when we are going to get there and become fully immersed in the journey itself. To do this we must let go of excessive conceptualization and allow the shift away from left brain processes that I spoke of in the previous post (Music, Trance and Mindfulness ). Although most of us have had experiences involving this type of shift, it is often not a comfortable one because it may feel that our sense of being in control,( which is the basis of our sense of self), is being lost (see previous blog post). To find earlier posts on “left-brain process” or other concepts, use as key words in the search engine of this site at the top of the page.

On the other hand, when we allow such experiences to happen, it can often be quite liberating; liberating in the sense that one learns that there are other ways of being that are free of stress and strife. I remember my father, who one health professional described as a “Type Triple A Personality”, telling me about having such an experience while on vacation in Puerto Rico. He found that, even far away from his practice (he was an M.D), he could not stop thinking about his work. According to him, after several days of not being able to relax, my mother gave him a pencil and pad and told him to go draw something on the beach. This, he told me, finally allowed him to “let go” of his thoughts, be more fully present and he enjoyed the remainder of his vacation. As he told me this story, it was clear from his voice and the tears in his eyes that this had been a major “realization” in his life.

The roots of the word “vacation” are variously described as “free of occupation” and “to be empty”. In my Dad’s case he was “preoccupied” with thoughts about his work and unable to experience his moments on the beach and elsewhere in Puerto Rico by being fully there. Ideally, the novelty of the places we visit on vacation allow us to become fully present and this can only happen by “forgetting” our left-brain/self-sustaining thoughts. This is why, I think, that Dogen famously wrote that “to study the Buddha Way is to forget the self” and why Csikszentimihali said that “flow experiences” happen when we forget the “conceptual self, but not what Langer calls the “experiencing self”.

In Zen, sitting mediation is the key practice in studying the Buddha Way; the way of reality-i.e. being with whatever is happening in your life rather than what you want to be happening. Zazen may be thought of as a practice time where one goes on a brief vacation under conditions that facilitate practicing the difficult task of “vacating” or “emptying”. But, Zen, along with other Spiritual disciplines also emphasize the need to eventually extend this practice into all aspects of life. One way this has been emphasized in Zen is by incorporating “kinhin” or “walking meditation” into the routines of those practicing sitting meditation. When correctly practicing walking meditation one is fully absorbed in the waking process with no thought of going anywhere. When you watch the video look for instances of such mindful walking; the title of the video alludes to such mindfulness. The music that accompanies this video is a remix of the song “Caravan”, which is a jazz standard composed by Juan Tizol and first performed by Duke Ellington in 1936. See the video below.

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